4 Things to Consider Before Starting a Small Business

August 26, 2018

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Establish your targeted market

One of the most common mistakes people often make is choosing the product and starting the business without any actual idea if there is any need or interest for that particular product or service. If that is the path you have taken, stop and reconsider your idea.

Take time and do your research, think about it and eventually pick your target market first, then choose the product that would fulfill the needs of people within your targeted market. In other words, instead of chasing customers in order to sell your product you should consider a different approach. Find and narrow down your target audience and examine what is the product or service they are willing to buy.

For example, would you rather have 2000 visitors per day on your website from a general audience or would you rather have 3 calls and 200 website visits from highly targeted and qualified leads willing to buy and in need for your product?

Next is to:

Develop a Product

Once you have researched and know your target market audience the next step is to develop your service or product. There are many ways how to do this but in this instance, I will talk about the following three.

Create your own exclusive product or service

Might not be the easiest way but certainly gives you the most options. If the product or service is developed by you then it is only your decision where and how to market it and what to charge for the service/product you are providing.

Buy the rights to a product

This path might be more straightforward as there are many products you can buy the rights for. For example, if you notice that there is a product you believe could fulfill the demand within your target market but is created by someone else, be proactive, contact the person or the company and offer them an upfront fee for the rights to it. By doing this you will acquire product and will not need to pay any royalties in future.

Join an affiliate program

This path could be the perfect solution for someone just starting their online outreach. It might be less profitable but also less risky approach as you will not need a substantial investment to start. Prior to starting the affiliate program, you should choose a product which is quite desirable and needed within your target market audience. Think of the percentage from each affiliate sale and choose products that are worth your time.

Third step in my Four Things To Consider Before Starting a Business is:

Create a USP

This is a must. Ask yourself what is the Unique Selling Proposition for your product or service? Why you are better and what is so unique about the service or product you offer. Is it the price, quality, a longer guarantee, accessibility, just think about it and make it clear to your customers.

Fourth step in my Four Things To Consider Before Starting a Business is:

You Must Offer a Freebee

One of the many established marketing strategies used to attract traffic to your website is to offer a FREEBEE as a lead magnet. It doesn’t need to be anything expensive. You can offer a free report, an industry insight, free e-books etc. If you are not well versed in writing you can always pay someone to do it for you. You must create and offer something for free in order to attract attention and draw visitors to your website.